The comedy is turned up a notch in the 4 episodes of Excel Saga presented here in the 3rd release. We have a recap show like no other (more on that later), a detective story and even a dabble of youth drama in school. Just like the last disc, Excel Saga continues to rip on all forms of anime and real life.

I would like to key in on the last episode. It is a recap episode and the end of the first half of the show. Once again, Excel and Hyatt are on a game show. This time they are competing by looking over their performances over the past episodes and saying which one was better. This is absolutely hilarious and shows that the creators of this show left no stone unturned and decided a sense of continuity could be thrown out the door.

I am not usually too excited by review episodes, but this one does a good job of skewering the other shows that do poor recap episodes. This show is just hilarious.

The other episodes presented include Menchi making it out of Excel's home and goes to another country where a group of dogs are being chased by a catcher. The dogs agree to help her find her way home, but the dogs need some help. The weird thing about this episode is that the dogs can walk and like to fire machine guns!

The second episode I did not like so well. Excel and Hyatt go to Excel's old school to find out how the children of tomorrow will fare. The class is filled with children who are very violent and the girls get into a myriad of problems at the school.

The third episode looks like a take off of the Lupin series with Nabeshin being chased by Rikdo. There is also another story going on here with the government characters trying to become Kabapu's warriors since they are bored of doing paperwork all the time.

Overall this was a pretty good release. I was laughing a bit more in this release than the last release. The recap episode was nice too for someone like myself that had not seen the first disc.

The DVD

Video: Being a pretty new television series, the video is excellent. Since this is a television show it is shown in regular screen format.

Sound: Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and in English and Japanese. All of the action comes from the front soundstage and I did not hear any discernable noise from the rear speakers. Both tracks sound very good.

Menus: Set up with animation from the game show episode (the last one)

Extras:

Text Interview with Creator Shinchi Wantanabe: Probably the best extra presented on this disc. A rather lengthy interview with the creator about the series and the ideas behind it.

Vidnotes: You can play these throughout the 4 episodes. They give you additional information on origins of the jokes and the show in general.

Find the Mint: A small little game to play

Menchi Recipes: Full recipes from Menchi's cooking.

Production Sketches: Basic sketches revolving around the show.

Final Thoughts: Excel Saga continues to be funny. It seems to be getting better as I go along and the recap episode certainly helps catch you up before the 4th release. Highly Recommended.